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LP
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BEWITH 180LP
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$36.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/23/2025
Daniel O'Sullivan's transcendent new album, Eros, is one of the greatest things Be With has ever heard. A simply stunning song cycle of hypnotic, experimental contemporary chamber music composed for a 14-piece ensemble. Combining minimalism, complex syncopation, detailed acoustic textures, weird intervals and samurai precision, this record will elegantly blow your mind. Daniel first pitched it as "Liquid Swords meets Michael Nyman". A "unique hybrid orchestral music," it presents a confluence of Daniel's longstanding fixations; indeed, there's elements of Nyman, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Magma, Aaron Copland, and RZA. But this is wholly O'Sullivan's. Originally commissioned for the Sonoton Music Library in Munich, Eros now receives a deluxe vinyl release courtesy of Be With Records, bringing this meticulously crafted work to a wider audience. Limited to just 500 copies for the world, these are gonna fly. As a deep virtuoso and collaborator, O'Sullivan has also played in a number of influential projects, including Ulver, Sunn O))), This Is Not This Heat, Grumbling Fur, and Miracle (with Steve Moore), leaving an indelible mark on the contemporary experimental music landscape. O'Sullivan's first foray into classically informed chamber music, Eros is a culmination of his long-standing fixations and expansive musical influences. The album features arrangements that are as detailed as they are emotionally resonant, showcasing his unparalleled ear for intervals and mastery of counterpoint. The music brims with complex rhythmic syncopation and a sensitivity to texture and space, resulting in a soundscape that is both intoxicating and dauntingly precise. Recorded June 2023 and February 2024, in Brussels, London and Carmarthenshire, Wales, Eros features members of Echo Collective (Neil Leiter and Margaret Hermant), Thighpaulsandra (from seminal post-industrial band Coil), and jazz pioneer Oren Marshall. Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis, and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. Truly, Eros is a work of extraordinary depth and sophistication. It invites listeners to immerse themselves in its intricate layers, to lose themselves in its hypnotic rhythms, and to marvel at the precision of its execution. With this release, O'Sullivan reaffirms his position as one of the most inventive and uncompromising voices in contemporary music.
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LP
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VHF 161LP
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"Fourth volume of Library Music miniatures by Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, This is Not This Heat, etc) for VHF, this time commissioned by the legendary German Music Library, Sonoton. Another sampling of O'Sullivan's versatility and brilliance as a composer, performer, and sound designer, the focus on The Pastoral Machine is more 'electronic' compared to the three previous albums O'Sullivan recorded for KPM (also issued on LP by VHF), with simpler arrangements and a focus on gentle and emotive synthesized soundworlds. Even without as many full ensemble arrangements, there's still a wealth of diversity -- 'Empathogen' opens the record with latticed arpeggiating sequences recalling Japanese 'environmental music' or Persian Surgery-era Terry Riley, 'Fruit Of Stream Entry' burbles with gentle ripples evoking the album's title, while 'The Silversmith Of Space' mines a simple chord sequence evoking Eno's '70s classic short instrumentals. "Superstrings" is a series of hypnotic overlapping guitar patterns, like a lost Ash Ra or Achim Reichel track. The brief 'Star Lore' is a heavy highlight with deep bass washes and grainy, tape-laminated melodies, followed immediately by Rose Keeler Schaffeler's vocal feature on 'The Oscillating Love' recalling futurist new-age pop in the vein of Enya or Virginia Astley. Housed in a jacket and heavy euro-style inner featuring collages by O'Sullivan, soon to be the subject of an art book published by Timeless Editions in mid-2024."
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LP
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VHF 152LP
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"Third in a trilogy of albums of library music miniatures from composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel O'Sullivan (Æthenor, Ulver, This Is Not This Heat, etc.) following 2020's Electric Māyā and 2021's Fourth Density. For heads, the term 'library music' in 2021 might evoke dodgy Italian gray market LPs and crate-diggers hunting for 'funky breaks' -- but London's venerable KPM Music is working with groundbreakers like O'Sullivan to open up new avenues for composers to experiment. The fifteen tracks on The Physic Garden are fully-formed and orchestrated compositions, which would be highlights on anyone's release, never mind as incidental music. Of the music, O'Sullivan says: 'The Physic Garden is an album of diverse instrumentals inspired by a swathe of verdant vistas from manicured gardens and follies to urban common land, overgrown and forgotten. Convalescent memories in the shape of psychedelic auditory botanics.' Key tracks include the droning acoustic folk of the title song; the Canterbury-esque rolling horn and woodwind melody of 'Return The Heart' (with expert drum kit from Frank Byng); the prog-ish odd meter interlude 'Buttercup Tea'; The quiet ambience and delicate melody of 'Dusty Feather'; and the Eno-like drift of 'Vapourer Larvae.'"
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LP
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VHF 151LP
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"Second in a series of three records of Library Music miniatures from composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel O'Sullivan (Æthenor, Ulver, This Is Not This Heat, etc.) following 2020's Electric Māyā. For heads, the term 'Library Music' in 2021 might evoke dodgy Italian gray market LPs and crate-diggers hunting for 'funky breaks' -- but London's venerable KPM Music is working with groundbreakers like O'Sullivan to open up new avenues for composers to experiment with. Fourth Density's fifteen tracks include several beguiling instrumental beauties, including the Ashra-like 'Astral Survivor' and the drifty 'Faster Than Light.' Mixed in with the instrumental are almost-pop gems like the hypnotic 'Orgone Attenuation' and 'Head In The Belfry,' both with guest vocals from Astrud Steeholder. Like the other volumes, this is in a beautiful jacket designed by O'Sullivan and Turner Prizenominee Mark Titchner and pressed on aesthetically complimentary blue vinyl."
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LP
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VHF 150LP
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"First in a series of three records of library music miniatures from composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel O'Sullivan (Æthenor, Ulver, This is Not This Heat, etc). For heads, the term 'library music' in 2020 might evoke dodgy Italian gray market LPs and crate diggers hunting for 'funky breaks' -- but London's venerable KPM Music is working with groundbreakers like O'Sullivan to open up new avenues for composers to experiment. Electric Māyā includes eighteen gems, beautifully arranged and recorded specifically for the challenge of the short form. These are fully realized tunes, not just clips from the middle of some jam to be used on late night TV. The obvious touchstones here are Eno's On Land and Music For Films, but O'Sullivcan's touch on multiple instruments and knack for melody extend the music far beyond mere atmospherics. There are plenty of drifty segments, each rendered fully realized -- a timely reminder that a well-made drone or bit of ambience can set its spell in two or three minutes rather than thirty. In a beautiful jacket designed by O'Sullivan and Turner Prizenominee Mark Titchner."
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